Ladies and gentlemen, I made the move to MIDI controllers! It makes mixing with mp3’s alot easier, although it still doesn’t feel like mixing with vinyl or CD’s (yet, mixing with mp3’s has more possibilities for a cheaper price than mixing with analog stuff).

Some will declare me crazy for buying Hercules stuff (“but, they produce toys!!!“), but the controller I got ain’t no stinking plastic shit: it’s made out of brushed metal and it’s heavy enough to give the criticasters some pain ;-).

Furthermore it has an internal soundcard, which reduces the number of items one has to carry (like, no extra external soundcard!). The damn thing even features double jacks for mics and headphones (at the back and at the front).

More evident stuff like two jogwheels (for scratching and pitch bending, these modes are set by pressing a seperate button), pitch faders, volume faders, cross fader, equalizer knobs are also included.

A nice extra feature are the twelve buttons (six for each channel) which can be assigned to special functions (loop in, loop out, pitch bends, effects, …) in any software which has a MIDI learn feature.

I’ve tested it for two days now, it seems to work okay. 🙂 Tomorrow I’ve a small gig, so we’ll see how it performs when it has to. 🙂

So, the first jamming session. The concept is like this: use some oldskool tunes, mix them up with newer tunes (they call this ‘eclectic’), and mix them in a relaxed I-don’t-really-care kinda way. Download it through the podcast-page (subscribe, or directly through the URL).

Bob Marley – Jammin: yeah, who didn’t expect this tune? 😉

Spank Rock, Dr Dre ft Snoop Dogg, Justice & Technotronic – Bump, Pump & Spank to Switch on Justice: this is some mash-up I found on the internet, really great: intro is from Dr Dre’s Next Episode, verses are from Spank Rock and Technotronic, and it ends with the monster from Justice: Waters of Nazareth.

You may soon expect a new series of mixtapes: the Jamming Sessions. These series will be more laid back, no need for pushing phat songs, but more classic gems, from the eighties and older, mixed with newer stuff (like the Revlon Spaz Queens‘ End of Summer). Justice’ BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix style, but less thightly mixed. Not everyone has Ableton Live, you know. (if you skim the tracklisting from that Essential Mix, you’ll find Underground by Das Pop, now on the Belgian radio, last year played by Justice!)